Harry Potter and the Skull of Grindelwald
by Caesarion
Summary: 6th Year: Harry Potter has lost his Godfather. Voldemort is expanding his armies daily. Foreign Aurors are arriving daily to augment the English Aurors, and war seems closer and closer on the horizon. There is but one lost artifact that can help postpone
1. Sirius Black is back?

Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is JKR's universe; I'm just borrowing it. Everthing belongs to her, with the exception of my characters, which are my property.

Harry Potter and the Skull of Grindelwald

A story by JuliusCaesar489

CHAPTER ONE: SIRIUS BLACK... IS BACK?

Harry lay in his bed in the house at Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging. His thoughts, as was so commom as of late, were chaotic. No dreams were to be had- they had been so painful for him, that his mind had temporarily blocked it's ability to dream. _I guess it's better this way,_ thought Harry.

Harry Potter's godfather, one Sirius Black, had been killed in the Department of Mysteries two months prior. Ever since then, Harry had been in a deep depression. Not even the constant nagging of his aunt and uncle could distract him. His cousin Dudley was too scared to try anything with him; a most welcome change.

Harry's hands went to his scar- nothing out of the ordinary there. Relaxing slightly, Harry lay back down in bed, thinking of a subject that had been another cause of his depression- Hermione Granger. The notorious Gryffindor bookworm and prefect, she had been his friend since their first year at Hogwarts. He had watched her grow- who'd have thought that the akward little girl he'd met way back in 1st year would have grown so much? _And in all the right places, too._ Harry mentally added. _No! You're not supposed to think of her that way! She's your best friend, and besides, she's probably already hooked up with Ron._

Harry sighed. At the rate things were going, he'd never get a girlfriend. Given Ron's new status as the star player of House Gryffindor, and his ban from the game last year, he had very little chance. This, of course, did nothing to improve his mood. Rather, it had quite the opposite effect.

Harry was nearly asleep again, when an image rose in his mind- the sight of Sirius Black's death. He reached into his drawer, and took a sleeping potion he had bought in Diagon Alley- and fell immidiately into a dreamless, peaceful sleep...

Miles away, in the house known as the Burrow, Hermione Granger tossed and turned in bed. She had been having trouble sleeping since the incident in the Department of Mysteries. She kept thinking of how the battle had gone- though a victory over Voldemort, is was, in her opinion, a Pyrric victory. They had captured many Death Eaters, true- but they lost Sirius.

She could feel how sad Harry was- which, in turn, made her sad. She had, over the course of their years at Hogwarts, fallen quite hard for him. She didn't dare admit it- he was probably still pining away for Cho Chang.

_Oh well_ she thought, the now-familiar tears returning for their nighlty visit, _I had the oh-so-good sense to fall for the most attractive Gryffindor... what should I expect!?!_

Hermione Granger cried herself to sleep that night.

In Diagon Alley, two wizards landed their brooms and walked down the street. Father and son, they were; recent arrivals from America.

"Dad," the younger said, while yawning, "next time, take the Wizard Express. It's faster, and a hell of a lot more comfortable than these damnable brooms!"

The elder laughed in amusement. "Come now, Gaius, you know I was ordered here. The Board doesn't exactly allow for 'Auror travel expenses' the way the British Ministry of Magic does. We had no choice... else I'd run out of galleons for your schoolbooks!"

"Ok, ok, I surrender. So, what exaclty is this- this Hogwarts school like?"

"You'll find out," the elder said, a small smile playing about his face.

Then, there was a small flash of light about 10 meters in front of them. After the light died down, a pale man dressed in rags with a beard tumbled to the ground. Gaius's father rushed forward to assist him. "My name's Sextus Maxwell, Auror. Who are you, sir, and what is your business here?" The reply shocked Sextus. "The name's Sirius Black. Take me to Dumbledore, he'll know what to do...." was all Sirius managed to say before passing out.

Harry was awakened by an owl at his window. He recognized it as a school owl- and it seemed in a hurry. Harry let the owl in, took the message, and fed the bird-of-prey a couple of snacks. He then opened the letter, and began to read.

_Harry,_

_Sirius is alive. An Auror spotted him in Diagon Alley nearly an hour ago. He is safe at Hogwarts, and Madam Pomfrey is tending to his wounds. He expects to see you, in his words, "As soon as bloody well possible!" Given that school starts in a month, I have decided to let you come to Hogwarts to visit him. When you buy your school supplies, I will send someone for you._

_Best Wishes and Congratulations,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

At reading this, Harry gave a shout of joy. He was about to start writing to Hermione, when a yell of "SHUT UP, YOU BLASTED FREAK!" came through the wall. Thinking the better of things, Harry decided to go back to sleep. It came easy for him.

Meanwhile, the Maxwells set up in a small apartment in London. Sextus Maxwell was a veteran Auror of the American Bureau of Magic. With well over 30 years of service under his belt, he had been ordered to England to help in their battle against the Death Eaters. This was hardly his first time on an overseas assignment- he had come here during the First War, and had helped in Japan during the Otamai Crisis.

For his son Gaius, however, this was a new experiance. He was changing schools. A grade-A student in the American Institute of Applied Magics, Gaius had spent more time with his books than with his peers. The school was, as he put it, boring. The teachers were lousy, and the food was horrible. The only redeeming value it had was that it was close to The Maxwells' house in New Orleans.

_Thank God for school transfers... and for beds!_ Gaius thought as he laid down. He was out cold before his head his the pillow... as was his father.

Well? Was that a good first chapter? R&R, s'il vous plait.


	2. Infirmaries and Infirmities

CHAPTER TWO: INFIRMARIES AND INFIRMITIES

Harry spent the rest of his summer in a good mood, which the Dursleys were dumbfounded by. Depressed to happy in a night? What was going on here? Figuring that they'd best leave him alone lest he go insane and kill them, they dropped the issue.

None too soon for Harry, it was time to go to the Burrow to buy school supplies with the Weasleys. That morning Remus Lupin showed up to escort Harry to the Burrow.

"Harry!" was all Harry heard as Hermione slammed him against the wall in a tight hug, which Harry returned quite willingly. Ron and Ginny Weasley looked on with amusement- and frustrated confusement.

"I don't get it. He's interested, she's interested- what's the bloody problem?" Ron asked his sister. "Simply put: you. They don't want to break up the trio, I'd guess." Ron's look darked slightly, then took on a malicious look. He had plans for those two.

"Oi! Harry, 'Mione, how long you two going to play Devil's Snare?" Ginny called out, causing the embarrased teens to part quickly. Mumbling apoligies to each other, Hermione helped Harry carry his bags up to his room.

_Going to lock them in a broom closet this year. Not going to let them out until I hear kissing, or 'I love you's, or _anything! _Anything will do! _Ron thought.

The Trio walked through Diagon Alley, buying school supplies, and stopping in at the Leaky Cauldron for butterbeers. It was then that they were approached by a young man wearing Gryffindor robes.

"Which one of you is Harry Potter?" the boy asked in an American accent.

"That'd be me. Who are you?"

The boy replied, "I am Gaius Maxwell, a transfer student from America. Dumbledore sent me here to fetch you, seeing as how all the Order members were busy and all."

"Sirius! Uh, Gaius, was it? Can I bring them along as well?" Harry asked, indicating Ron and Hermione. Gaius shrugged. "Sure. I don't see anything wrong with it." The Trio got up and followed Gaius to the Cauldron's fireplace, where they Flooed to Hogwarts. Specifically, Dumbledore's office.

"Mr.- I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore, the guests you requested have arrived. If you have no further need of me..?" Gaius said."Of course, you may leave." Gaius grabbed his broom -leaning against the wall- and left Dumbledore's office.

"Hello Harry, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger. Shall we?"

Draco Malfoy was seething. Father- in prison. Mother- a hopeless wreck. And Lord Voldemort breathing down his neck about the Dark Mark. He didn't want to recieve it- with his father gone, he'd become less of the miniture Death Eater, and more of a normal young man. His pride, however, wouldn't allow him to ask for help. _So what am I going to do?_ Malfoy asked himself. _What am I going to do..._

__

Harry was overjoyed to see his godfather alive and semi-well again. Ron, unnoticed to everyone but Sirius, slipped an envelope under Sirius's pillow while Harry talked to him. "What happened? How are you alive?"

Sirius gave a chuckle. "All I remember is Bellatrix hexing me, falling down, then falling again through a bright tunnel. That's when that Maxwell fellow found me-" "Gaius?" Harry asked. "No, no this one's name was Sextus. An Auror- American if i got the accent right- so I told him to take me to Dumbledore. Thank God he listened, or I would've gotten a kiss from a lovely Dementor." The four of them shuddered at the thought of the ghastly creatures.

"I'm just glad you're ok" Harry said. Dumbledore coughed, and said "I hate to break up your reunion, but you really must be going, Harry. Sirius needs his rest. "Ok, Professor Dumbledore. Bye, Sirius."

Once the three of them left, Sirius read Ron's note, chuckling to himself as he read it.

_Sirius,_

_I need your help with Harry and Hermione. They love each other, yet refuse to give even a hint of it to each other! I'm thinking of locking them in a broom closet! Any advice welcome!_

_Ron Weasley_

Sirius thought _time for Padfoot the Marauder to make a comeback._ The broomcloset! Hah! _Took that for Lily and James to get together. Time for a second use, methinks..._ Sirius began his reply to Ron.

Ginny Weasley was the last person Draco Malfoy expected to bump into in Knockturn Alley. "What're you doing here, little weasel?" Draco snarled. "Oh, just wandering around, looking for Slytherins in need of severe hexing. What about you, Draco? Headed to a Death Eater convention or something?" Ginny responded in kind.

"No, as a matter of fact I was not, Virginia- err, Weasel!" Draco said, stuttering at the end. "You used my name. Why?" "I did no such thing, Weasel!" Draco practically yelled. "Yes, you called me Virginia. Why? Why did you do that, Draco?"

Draco wondered that same thing as he lay in bed that night. He hadn't been able to answer her- in fact, he'd just walked away without another word. He immersed himself in his father's library of Dark Arts textbooks, rather than ponder his verbal blunder. It was much easier to think of his father's imprisonment. A most pleasant thought, indeed.

_I hate this part of the job_ Sextus Maxwell thought as he looked at the crime scene. "What do we have here, Sextus? Standard Death Eater practice, of worse?" Alastor Moody asked him. "Classic Death Eater scene: dead muggle, a female of about 21 years of age, tortured and raped before death, Dark Mark in the sky, and residual effects of all three Unforgiveables. Reminds me of the first war." Sextus reported. "Alright, get this scene cleaned up before thr Prophet arrives! Call in the Obliviation squads, and have PR ready something we can feed into the muggle law enforcement. Move!" Alastor barked to the Aurors on-scene. No one noticed a rat with a silver paw run past the scene and into the sewer.

Hopfully, you've enjoyed this second chapter. R&R, s'il vous plait.


	3. Trains of Land and Thought

CHAPTER THREE: TRAINS OF LAND AND THOUGHT

(Author's Note: This is slightly AU in that in this fic, Blaise Zabini is a girl rather than a boy. With all due respect to J.K. Rowling, I enjoy the female Blaise characterizations I've seen more than the male ones, so I've opted to use that in this fic. Also, the reason Gaius was wearing Gryffindor robes will be explained in this chapter. Thanks, JuliusCaesar489.)

Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys still attending Hogwarts walked off of Platform 9 3/4 and boarded the Hogwarts Express, as did Draco Malfoy and his two pet thugs, Crabbe and Goyle. Once all students were aboard, the train departed the station.

The Trio sat in their usual compartment, joined by Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and the new student Gaius Maxwell. Gaius stared reading a book entitled _Dark Forces of History_, and the rest began talking. It wasn't more than a minute after they sat down before Draco Malfoy showed up to do his usual taunting. "Hello, Potter. Get anyone else killed or sent to Azkaban over the summer?" asked Draco in a falsely-polite voice.

A shouting match ensued, making reading impossible for Gaius. He got up to leave, but found Draco in his way. "Excuse me" he tried. Malfoy didn't budge. In fact, he further blocked the doorway. "I asked nicely the first time. Out of my way, Malfoy!" "Hah! Me? Draco Malfoy, move for a bloody yank! Why, I'd-" whatever Draco was about to say was cut off as Gaius slugged him. Draco fell to the ground, jaw in hand. The occupants of the compartment burst out laughing at the pathetic sight of a moaning Draco Malfoy on the floor.

"Oh, you can laugh. But he will regret his actions, I tell you! You will regret yours as well, Potter! I-" Draco was cut off again, this time by Ginny. "You never answered my question, Malfoy." Stuttering, then seething, Draco stalked off to his compartment. "What question?" Ron asked his sister. _Oh shit_ Ginny thought, trying to come up with an explanation that wouldn't end in Draco's death...

_Damn! _Blaise Zabini thought as she walked through the Hogwarts Express. _Every bloody compartment is full!_ She was so caught up in her thoughts that she failed to notice an empty one. "Hey! You looking for a seat?" was called to her by a boy in an otherwise-empty compartment. _Thank God for small favors_ she thought as she answered with a "Yes" and sat in the compartment.

"I don't think I've ever seen you before." Blaise said to her compartment-mate. "No, you haven't. I'm Gaius Maxwell. I transferred here from AIAM. (AN: Abbriviation for American Institute of Applied Magics) What's your name?" "My name is Blaise Zabini. I'm in Slytherin- tell me, Gaius, if you're a transfer, then why do you have Gryffindor robes on?"

Gaius chuckled. "Dumbledore had the hat sort me the day after I arrived. Figured it would 'ease my transition' or something of that sort. By the way- why is there so much animosity between Gryffindors and Slytherins?" Blaise shrugged. "I don't know. Just the way it's always been, I suppose. I never paid much attention to it. Oh, and Gryffindor or not, thanks for the seat."

"No problem. But if I may ask- why were you so late in looking for a seat?" Gaius asked. Blaise turned slightly crimson, and muttered something. "I'm sorry, what was that?" "I said I was in the bathroom..." Gaius smirked. "_Feminae..._"

Before Blaise could reply, a large roar was heard. The hairs on the back of Gaius neck stood up as Blaise asked "What the hell was that?" His face grim when he replied. "A Revenant."

_"Revenant: An undead creature of the Skeletal Wraith type that combines the properties of Dememtor, Skeleton, and is imbued with both Necromantic and Elemental powers. Most commonly found are ice revenants, although other types, including water, fire, earth, and wind, exist."_ -quotation from _The Book of Theosade-Kæl_, a 7th-century mage.

Harry watched the Dementor-thing advance through the Hogwarts Express. "_Expecto Partonum!_" he cried, trying to banish the creature. Harry's partonus, while powerful, did nothing. The Revenant, looking as bored as a faceless abomniation can, merely fired a blast of ice towards Harry, who barely managed to dodge it. "_Tempestas Incendias!_ " shouted Gaius as he advanced towards the Revenant. As is withdrew, students all began shouting every fire-spell they knew at the creature. It kept retreating, but was not destroyed.

"_Exorciso Revenanto!_" the creature shrieked- and then crumbled to dust in a blue haze. Everyone turned towards the source of the spell- and naught but a large black dog where a man's voice had been before.

The Hogwarts Express arrived at Hogsmeade Station without further incident. As the Trio disembarked from their carrage, they noticed Gaius getting out of a carriage- and helping Blaise Zabini out as well. He waved to her, then walked over to the Trio.

"What are you doing with her? She's a bloody Slytherin!" Ron exclaimed. Raising an eyebrow, Gaius said "Your point being...?" Ron stuttered, then settled for looking mad. Nearby, Blaise was getting similar treatment from her own housemates...

"Master, the attack was a failure. Please forgive your humble servant!" Wormtail begged. "Do not concern yourself, Wormtail. The Revenant fulfilled its purpose. The enemy will now spend time worrying over my control over the Revenants, while I shall bring forth my new army. An army filled with terrors the likes of which this world has never seen. Bring me the _Book of Nogran_!" Voldemort said. And then- he laughed. He laughed the bone-chilling laugh which had scared countless wizards and muggles before he killed them. Caught up in the sound, Wormtail shivered.

That's it for Chapter Three! R&R, s'il vous plait.


	4. The Portal

CHAPTER FOUR: THE PORTAL

Voldemort apparated to a small, unnamed spot in central England. There lay a small tear in the fabric of reality and impossibility, a rip in space and time. A stitch could fix it... or a tug could open it further. Voldemort hoped to do the latter. For beyond this tear lay his new army, an army unlike anything that had ever been seen on Earth. Nogran had created the tear, and Grindelwald had first contacted the denizens of the world beyond, but neither was able to bring make a doorway. That task would fall to another.

It would be he, Lord Voldemort, the latest in a line of dark lords, who would build a portal to this world of Gre'nor. It would be he who brought forth the Orcs to Earth. And it would be he who would forge the empire so long-desired by practicioners of the Dark Arts.

At Hogwarts, the first evening of school went as usual. The Sorting Hat sang its song, sorted the first years, and then Dumbledore gave his speech.

"Before we begin this feast, I must ask for your attention while I make a few announcements. Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has added all of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes' products to the list of banned items, bringing the total to-what is it, Argus?- 900, I believe." This drew a laugh from the students; the Weasley twins had single-handedly nearly doubled Filch's list. "The full list is, as always, posted inside Mr. Filch's office, for those of you who wish to review it. The Forbidden Forest is just that- forbidden. As is the village of Hogsmeade to all students under 3rd year." As Dumbledore spoke, a cloaked figure entered the Great Hall and sat at the Professors' table. Dumbledore then smiled. "Also, I would like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor- Mr. Sirius Black."

Aside from Harry, Ron and Hermione, few people applauded. Most people still didn't trust Sirius, even though the Ministry had dropped charges over a month ago and publically acknowledged their error.

"As most of you do not know, Mr. Black has been exonerated of all charges by the Ministry of Magic. I can assure you, Mr. Black is no danger to any of you. Unless, of course, you aggrivate him; then you are on your own against his rather extensive knowledge of pranks." Dumbledore chuckled as he said this last bit. Sirius unhooded himself, shooting Snape a glare as Snape returned it full force. He then sent Ron a rather mischevious look, unnoticed by Harry and Hermione- who had, after catching each other staring- had become rather interested in their plates.

The following days of school were-to say the least- interesting. Professors Black and Snape were continually at each other's throats over one minor issue or another. The Gryffindors, of course, supported Sirius, while the Slytherins-most of them, anyhow- supported Snape. This animosity culminated when an arguement between the two men escalated.

Snape walked into the DADA classroom and stood before Sirius's deck. Sirius looked up with an exasperated expression. "Good afternoon, Snape. Well, at least it was until you showed your presence in my classroom. What do you want?" Sirius sighed. Snape merely smirked. "Believe me, Black, I have no desire you watch your Gryffindor-pampering class-" "Gryffindor pampering!?! What the hell do you call your class, then? Slytherin worship?" The members of Slytherin and Gryffindor houses watched with amusement as the two professors verbally fought one another.

"No, Black, I call it 'Potions Class'. Of course, if the current trend holds, I won't have to worry about you being here next term." Snape said, still smirking. Sirius stood up and said "Well, if the current Death Eaters-being-sent-to-Azkaban ratio holds... well, by Christmas the halls will be devoid of your lovely begreased presence." Angered beyond words at the old insult, Snape threw a punch at Sirius, who dodged and started fighting back. The students were either cheering for Snape of Sirius, looking frightend at the spectacle, or running for help. Professor McGonagall got their first, and automatically said "Mr. Black, Mr. Snape, detention!" before she realized her error, and then proceeded to place both Professors in the body-bind curse.

"You all are dismissed until your next class." she said to the students as she levitated the two men (still glaring at each other) to the Hospital Wing.

Harry sat conversing with Remus in the Gryffindor fireplace. "Fistfight, eh? Sounds like the Marauder Years all over again. How badly was Snape hurt?" Confused, Harry asked "Aren't you going to ask about Sirius?"

Remus laughed. "No, no. I know him; bounce back on his feet in the morning. Snape's the one who got hurt the most, I can promise you that!" "Yeah, Remus, he was. Sirius has a couple of bruises around his ribs, and Snape had a black eye, a broken arm, and a broken toe." "Well, if this is anything like the fights of old, Snape will try to make a prank on Sirius involving a Blabber Potion (AN: makes the afflicted person unable to speak in coherent sentences), and Sirius will respons with multiple pranks of his own. So, my advice is: sit back and enjoy the show."

The Blabber Potion failed- Sirius had expected it and taken the antidote before he came into contact with it. Of course, Snape walked right into the pranks played on him.

On Monday, his hair started spewing grease (even more than it already did). On Tuesday, Snape was found turned upside down -with grey underpants showing- near the staff table. On Wednesday, every single cauldron in every class emptied its contents onto Snape.

On Thursday and Friday, Snape was so nervous that no pranks were necessary on Sirius's part. Nor were they allowed- Dumbledore had to draw the line somewhere, amused though he was at Sirius's ingenuity. The students felt a bit of disappointment-and relief- at the fact that things were going back to normal.

Elsewhere, Voldemort had succeeded in opening the Portal to Gre'nor. Orcish warriors began pouring through the gateway, averageing 300 a day. Voldemort set them up in places all over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, preparing for a simultaneous assault on every major wizarding center in the British Isles. _Soon, I will rid myself of Dumbledore and that wretched Potter. Then the world will be but my oyster... and no one will be able to stop me. _Lord Voldemort smiled.

In the darkness of his bed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter's scar burned... and he screamed.

R&R, s'il vous plait. Chapter 5 is due out sometime tommorrow (October 11).


	5. Dreams

CHAPTER FIVE: DREAMS

_Beautiful. Indescribably beautiful._ These were the thoughts of Harry Potter as he gazed upon Hermione Granger's nude body.

_Amazing. What have I done to be blessed so?_ These were the thoughts of Harry as he kissed the girl he loved.

_Oh my God... this must be what heaven is like._ These were the thoughts of Harry as he made love to Hermione.

"Hermione," he breathed, thoughts clouded by his pleasure. "Oh, Harry," Hermione moaned. "Wake up, Harry... wake up mate, wake up! You're going to miss breakfast!" Harry was confused. What kind of scream of pleasure was this?

Hermione's face blurred out... and was replaced with the amused face of Ron. "Ron, you have the worst bloody timing of all." Harry groaned before getting up to get dressed. What he didn't know was another withing Gryffindor tower had had a remarkably similar dream.

"Good morning, Harry. Sleep well? Enjoy your dream?" Gaius teased. He hadn't slept well that night, and had heard the things Harry had said unconciously. Blushing with embarrasment and anger, he asked "How do you know about that?" Raising his hands in a gesture of innocence, Gaius said "Hey, I couldn't sleep. All I know is you were moaning and making... suggestive movements in your sleep."

At breakfast, both Harry and Hermione were avoiding each others' gaze. They tried to be discreet, thus making it all too obvious. Ron smirked. _My hat's off to you, Sirius. Excellent potion._ It had been a relatively simple matter for Ron to place a drop of the Coeur Potion into something Harry and Hermione ate, thus causing both to share the dream of the thing they mutually desired most. Each other.

"Are you responsible for this?" Gaius asked Ron as the four Gryffindors made their way to class. "Responsible for what?" Ron asked innocently. His face, however, gave it away. Gaius smirked as he said "Good work."

"Harry!" Neville Longbottom shouted as he ran up to his friends. "Harry! the Dementors have left Azkaban! The Death Eaters have escaped!"

After leaving a recently-escaped Lucius Malfoy and a detachment of Dementors to oversee the Portal, Voldemort returned to his santuary along with I'thok, Chief Sorcerror to the Doombringer Clan.

I'thok was here for a reason. While the powers of Voldemort and the Death Eaters could destroy the Orcs in a matter of minutes, there was an art that the humans did not know. An art he was here to teach: the depraved practice of Necromancy.

"Malfoy! Wait!" Ginny shouted as she ran down the nearly-empty hall. Draco paused, then stopped. "What is it, Weasel?" Ginny ignored this comment. "I'm still waiting for my answer."

Sighing, Draco gave his answer even more thought than he had over the past couple of weeks. "The truth is, Weasley... I don't much know myself." he found himself saying. Ginny looked at him sympathetically; it would be hard for anyone not to, given the expression he wore.

"Is it something about me, Draco?" she asked lightly, drawing close to him. "I-... I don't..." He couldn't speak; all he could think about at that moment were her lips... "Do pardon me Virginia, but-" he bent down and kissed her; to his surprise, she responded eagerly. Neither saw Ron seething down the hallway, being held back from interrupting by Harry and Gaius while Hermione told him to calm down.

"What the bloody hell were you doing!?! Ginny, that was _Malfoy_ you were snogging! Has he cast some kind of spell or something on you?" Ron yelled, then asked his sister when she returned to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Smirking to aggrivate her brother, Ginny said "My snogs are none of your business." and walked up the stairs into the Girl's Dormitories. She left behind a furious brother, two slack-jawed would-be lovers, and one laughing transfer student.

Gaius lay awake that night. This time, he heard not Harry moaning- but Ron! He chuckled; it would appear someone sought to pull the same trick Ron had. He barely kept from laughing at Ron's gasp of "Luna".

The noise died down, and Gaius took to just laying awake again. He thought of the girl he was after; he daren't tell her, lest troubles arise for the both of them. _Remember the 62nd Rule of Acquisition: _he told himself, remembering the thing from some muggle television show. _The riskier the road, the greater the profit._

Gaius then wrote a letter to his father, seeking his advice. Once he finished the letter, he sent it out on his owl, Odoacer. He slept soundly the rest of the night.

Classes went smoothly that day, even with the near-death experiences Draco had whenever Ron saw him. Once DADA was over, Ron told Harry and Hermione to go on without him, and then walked up to Sirius's desk.

"How goes Operation: Closet, Ron?" Sirius asked. "For the most part, well. although I still can't figure out a good place to set up the trick doorway..." "My classroom. Tell the two lovebirds that I want to see them both after dinner in my office." Ron smirked. "Excellent. though I am having a problem of my own: my sister, Ginny, is going out with that Slytherin bastard Malfoy."

Sirius kept a serious face as he told Ron "I can't help you there, except to say that unless he hurts her, it really isn't any of your business. Here's a note to get you into your next class." As Ron left, he swore he heard Sirius laughing.

"Oi! Harry, 'Mione, I just remembered! Sirius said he wants to see you two after dinner in his office." Looking confused, Harry asked "What for?"

"I dunno," Ron said while glaring at Malfoy. "He just told me to tell you two to go see him." The two got up (having already finished eating) and went to the DADA classroom to wait for Sirius. They opened the door... and were teleported to a locked closet within Sirius's office (so he could break things up if they went too far).

"Ron is going to pay for this. Locking us in a closet!" Harry said through his teeth as he tried to tear down the door. He failed to notice Hermione's hurt look at his desperate escape attempts... he did notice, however, when she began to cry...

R&R, s'il vous plait.


	6. L'amor's in the Air

CHAPTER SIX: L'AMOR'S IN THE AIR

"Hermione, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Harry asked, his voice full of concern. Hermione muttered something incoherent in reply. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you said."

Composing herself, Hermione said, "I said I was crying because all you seem to think about right now is escape. Must be torture for you, being stuck in here with me and not someone like... like Cho!"

"Why would you think something like that? Are you alright, Hermione?" Harry asked, even more concerned than before. This was NOT the Hermione he knew.

"I-I don't know. I'm just so confused..." was all Hermione managed to get out before she broke down again.

Eventually, the door unlocked of its own accord. The two teenagers exited, both confused, one feeling hurt, the other concerned.

After walking Hermione to the entrance to the girls' dormatory Harry marched up the stairs to Gryffindor boys' dormatory, feeling very angry. He walked into the dormatory, to find the cause of his rage fast asleep.

_Hn. Maybe Ron didn't know about this after all... I'll have to talk to Sirius._ Harry thought before he, too, went to sleep.

The Orcish Warrior named Elarik moved swiftly through the forests of Scotland. He was headed to the location his master had specified: Hogwarts. However, his mission was not hostile to the school, but rather it was friendly. As he ran, he thought about the events which had brought him to this point, and to this alien world.

He was one of the last remnants of the Battlestone Clan, destroyed by their fellow Orcs when they refused to take up the Dark Arts. They had stuck to the old traditions of elemental and shamanistic magics, which were harder to master, but far more powerful.

Despite this power, the sheer number of enemy Warlocks fielded against them was too much, as the old Chieftain Nad'lug had seen. Before the Dark Clans reached their main encampment, he had sent away Elarik, his then-7 year old son, his Chief Shaman U'thok, and the Captain of the Chieftan's Huskarls, Nor'duk.

The three Orcs had continually raided small bases belonging to the dark clans, getting aid from the Muggle Orcs. When the Portal opened, The three went through under cover of darkness (and enemy uniforms) along with a band of soldiers from the Bonelord Clan, and a young Orc woman named Graon, Elarik's lover.

_Now is not the time for thoughts of women_ Elarik chided himself. _I can think of her _after_ I deliver our proposal._

Sextus Maxwell arrived at Hogwarts at 11:00PM that night. He didn't plan on seeing his son; the reply to the letter Gaius sent was exactly had been sent, a letter. _Less akward for Gaius this way_ thought Sextus before he went into his all-business mode.

After uttering the password to Dumbledore's office ("Lemon Drop"), he ascended the stairs to report his findings to the Headmaster.

"...thousands of Orcs coming through daily, an unknown number of other creatures coming through as well. Some things that look like undead riders, and some rather demonic looking ogres. Also, we've just recieved word that Voldemort is under the tutaledge of an Orcish Warlock named I'thok, Chief Sorceror to the Doombringer Clan. Things are looking especially grim now, sir."

Dumbledore smiled. "Not quite so grim as you think, Sextus." An Orc stepped out of the shadows. "I'd like you to meet Elarik, leader of the Orcish resistance, and our new encyclopedia on our enemy's strengths and weaknesses."

Odoacer returned to Hogwarts just as Sextus left. Gaius, up though it was after 1:00AM now, opened the letter, wanting to see just what his father had said.

_Dear Gaius,_

_I was a bit suprised (and amused, I must confess) at your letter. A girl, eh? Oh, your mother would _kill_ me for advising you to do anything about it, but I'm telling you to do so nonetheless. It sounds as though you really do like this girl, even though you've just met._

_Now, for my advice: take it slow. Don't rush things, but don't go too slow either. Do either of those, and she'll feel either too pressured or too bored to get into any kind of relationship with you._

_Let me know how things go. And, assuming they go well, I want you to tell me more about this girl in your next letter._

_Sextus P. Maxwell,_

_Auror, American Bureau of Magic_

Gaius laughed at the stamp on the bottom of the letter. He considered his father's advice. He then decided to act on it. This took him all of 13 seconds; his father had yet to steer him wrong. He then thought of someone else who could use this advice; his friend Harry.

_I'll show sometime tommorrow_ he thought before drifting off to the land of dreams.

"Sounds like good advice" Harry said. _I'll have to take it._ "But I do have a question: what does the 'P' stand for?" "Pompeius. We all have Roman names in the Maxwell family. My father's Sextus Pompeius Maxwell, I'm Gaius Julius Caesar Maxwell. Tradition."

"Speaking of family... you never discuss yours, Gaius. What're they like?" Harry asked at they met Ron at the bottom of the stairs and walked toward the Great Hall.

"Well, my mother died a few years back. I have a younger sister named Julia, and a younger brother named Marcus. I know your parents died, Harry, and you have my belated condolences. What's your family like, Ron?"

The three boys discussed family, then moved on to Quidditch as they entered the Great Hall and sat down. Hermione was sitting down, looking much better than when harry had seen her last, which pleased him greatly.

"Morning, 'Mione" Ron said as he sat down and loaded up his plate. "Good morning Ron, Harry, Gaius. By the way Ron, a certain blonde was looking for you earlier." Hermione smirked when she said this, and shared a glance with the other two boys; Harry knew the blonde very well, and Gaius had met her on the train.

"Blonde? Who?" Ron asked absently as he continued eating. "Oh, I'm sure you would recognise my rather looney presence anywhere, _Ronald_." Gaius said, perfectly imitating Luna's distictive tone of voice.

Ron's fork clattered to the table. "Luna? Luna Lovegood? She asked for me? Where's she now?" "I saw her walking in the direction of Snape's dungeon, Ron. Hurry and you might catch up with her." Harry said. "Right, right." Ron said as he practically ran out of the Great Hall.

"That was cruel, but wheter you ought to be proud or ashamed of yourselves is beyond me." Gaius said to the laughing Harry and Hermione. "Maybe, but he deserved it!" Hermione said before breaking down into laughter again. Gaius just chuckled. _Things were never this interesting at AIAM._

Soon enough, breakfast ended, and the students moved to their classes.

Ron got a detention from Snape from being in the dungeons before class (barely detention-worthy, but there's Snape for you), which Sirius thought was hilarious. The detention that night was with Sirius, who never made the students do anything; he just talked to them all detention long.

As the day ended, and the students moved towards the Great Hall, Gaius moved to intercept a certain girl before she could make it to the Hall.

"Blaise" he said as he approached her. She turned around to face him, a smile on her face. he smiled in return. "Hello, Gaius. Have a good day?" she asked. "Very. And you?" he replied and answered. "Oh, it went well enough." She considered his expression for a minute. "Gaius, is something the matter?"

Gathering up his courage, he said "Blaise, we need to talk..."

Sorry for the delay in updating; school and all. R&R, s'il vous plait.


	7. Ask No Questions, Be Told No Lies

CHAPTER SEVEN: ASK NO QUESTIONS, BE TOLD NO LIES

"Harry, have you seen Gaius?" Hermione asked, wondering where there new friend was. "Last I saw him, he was walking towards a group of Slytherins and Ravenclaws before dinner. Why?" Hermione said "I was just wondering, seeing as how he hasn't show up for dinner yet, and it's almost over." "Well," Ron said, finishing off the last food on his plate, "let me finish my chicken and we'll go look for him."

As the Trio left the Great Hall, the glance Ron shot at the Ravenclaw table was not lost on Harry and Hermione. "Has it bad, doesn't he?" Harry asked Hermione in a whisper. Hermione simply giggled and nodded.

Right after they left, Gaius sat down to eat at the Gryffindor table, as did Blaise at the Slythein table. The expressions on both faces were identical: unreadable.

The Trio, having searched the likely places where they thought Gaius would be, returned to the Gryffindor Common Room. Just as in the Great Hall, a few minutes after they entered and sat down, Gaius came in.

"Where's you been?" Harry asked. Gaius still wore an aloof expression upon it. "Oh, here and there." he said, sitting down. "Actually, I just came from dinner. Where were you?" "We went looking for you. So where were you before dinner?" Ron answered and asked.

"Well, if you must know..." Gaius said, eyes sparkling with mischief, "I was with a certain Slytherin of your acquaintance."

"Malfoy? Did you kill Malfoy?" Ron asked, very hopeful that Gaius had. "No, no. Malfoy was at dinner, I believe. No, i was with a Slytherin girl." "Pansy Parkinson? Millicent Bulstrode?" Ron guessed.

Gaius wrinkled his nose, disgusted. "Parkinson? Tsk. _Way_ too slutty for my tastes... not to mention unattractive. Same with Bulstrode, sans the slut part." "Well, then who..?" Ron said as the connection was made in Hermione's brain. "Zabini. You were with Blaise Zabini?"

Gaius gave a half-smirk at this. "Guilty as charged." Ron was less hostile than Harry and Hermione expected. "Well, I can't fault your taste, except for the fact that she's Slytherin."

"What difference does that make?" Gaius asked. Ron sputtered for an answer; he had none. "I don't think it makes any." Harry said. "Nor do I." said Hermione. "Honestly, Ron, you should be more tolerant- your own sister is with a Slytherin, remember?"

Wrong thing to say. "You mean she's _still _with Malfoy!?! That's it, he's _dead!_" Ron shouted. "I'd wait until he tries something with your sister, Ron. Otherwise, you lack justification." Gaius said. Much as he hated to admit it, Ron knew Gaius was right.

Voldemort's army continued to grow. The undead riders, now known to the Aurors as Dread Champions, were roaming the countryside along with bands of Orcish raiders. The Champions' mounts were just as skeletal as they were, just as undead; how the Orcs put up with such abominations as their commanders was beyond the Aurors.

Dread Champions were created from the carcasses of dead Orc Warlocks of the highest order, the Shade Confederation. Only the most elite and most corrupt of Warlocks were allowed in to the Confederation. However, the Orc's leader had grown mistrustful of these devious little Orcs, and massacred the lot of them, leaving only the leader alive "as a show of his mercy".

Thus was that leader killed, and the Warlock allowed to live took control of the Orcs by installing a puppet Chieftain. The Dread Champions were created from the energies of the dead Warlocks and Necromancers. These members of the Shade Confederation pretended to serve the Clans and Voldemort, they only served one master: I'thok.

"Hello, Sirius." Harry said, stepping into the DADA classroom. "Hello, Harry. What do you need?" Harry said "How-" but cut himself off, nervous at asking this question. "How what?" Sirius asked.

Harry tried again. "How did my parents get together?" Sirius's face remained neutral for a few seconds. "Well, we first got them to admit it by locking them into a storage closet, much as was done to yourself and Hermione. As to what eventually happened... you'd have to ask Remus."

Harry moved to the fireplace, and called the man in question. "Hello? Harry! Uh, why are you calling?" Remus asked, sounding a little nervous. Sirius's curiosity was immidiately piqued, but he kept silent; time to torture his friend about whatever it was later.

Before Harry could respond, a female voice was heard. "Remus? Who's calling?" Harry's eyes widened. _What's Tonks doing there?_

Sirius roared with laughter, and made a wolf call. This prompted a death glare from Remus. "Shut up, Sirius." Remus turned from the fireplace, and "I'll be back in a minute, Nymph" was heard through the fireplace, causing Sirius to chuckle a slight bit.

Remus flooed to the DADA classroom, still glaring at Sirius. "What's wrong, Harry?" The anger vanished, replaced by concern. "How did my parents get together?" Remus blushed slightly. "Well, I wasn't supposed to see it, but... Sirius, do you have a Pensieve?"

Grinning, Sirius pulled one out of his desk drawer. "Weren't you supposed to be patrolling the castle that night?" "Shut up, Sirius." Remus placed the particular memory in the Pensieve, and handed it to Harry.

Harry found himself within Remus's memory of that night. He saw James and Lily walking together, Head Boy and Head Girl badges glimmering on their cloaks. A younger-looking Remus walked stealthily behind them, a smirk on his face.

The two Heads stopped at the Astronomy Tower, chasing out all the couples inside. Remus stood a few feet away, re-directing them to sites the Marauders themselves often used. Remus was shocked when- after chasing away the people snogging in the Tower- they started snogging themselves! "Love you, Lil," was heard from James, with a responding moan coming from Lily- she couldn't talk with James's mouth covering her own.

Remus was hard pressed not to start laughing at the sight they made: two people whose sole occupation during the day seemed to be hateing each other were really in love with each other. Remus left them alone, off to tell Sirius the news... and to, alas, make good on his bet. 10 Galleons to who was right about the year the two 'Lovebirds', as Sirius had dubbed them, got together.

_At least_ Remus thought_ now I know why James actually looked angry at those kids instead of his usual amused-looking self._

Harry withdrew from the Pensieve, slightly ill at having watched his parents snogging. "So... that's what happened?" Sirius said "Not quite. I later found out from James that they had been together for about a month when Remus saw them. How they got together, he refused to say. Between the rest of the Marauders, we think it happened in a similar fashion to what Remus saw."

"Ok... I'm kind of sorry I asked... uh... see you later." Harry said, walking out of the DADA classroom. He heard Sirius asking Remus, "'Nymph'? My, my, my, Remus, whatever were you two kids up to?" "I said shut up, Sirius." Remus responded. Harry could practically _hear_ his blush in the words.

After dinner, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Gaius walked up to the Gryffindor Common Room. Ron was snatched off by a blonde girl (everyone knew it could only be Luna), and Gaius whispered in Harry's ear, "Tell her, Harry. There will never be a better time." before he walked off in search of Blaise.

Thus were the two Gryffindors everyone but those who knew them suspected were a couple caught walking in an akward silence. Hermione was still a bit saddened from Harry's reaction in the closet; she took his desperation to get out as a desperation to get away from beind so close to her alone.

Harry was very nervous. He then remembered what Gaius had told him earlier that day. _"You have nothing to fear from Hermione. I have been watching you two since we got in school... and I think you two need to stop pretending to feel purely platonic towards each other and get togther."_ Harry stopped, and Hermione stopped as well.

"Is something wrong, Harry?" she asked, putting her own problems aside. "No, Hermione." Her stomach backflipped at his next sentence. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you..."

R&R, s'il vous plait. Sorry for the delay in the update; I faced quite a few writer's blocks on certain scenes.


	8. Memories Part One: What Happened?

CHAPTER EIGHT: MEMORIES PART ONE: WHAT HAPPENED?

Sirius sat in his chambers in Hogwarts. Remus had left, Harry was off somewhere (presumeably with Hermione, if Sirius didn't miss his guess). He had a goblet of Odgen's Firewhiskey in hand, resting in his chair by the fire.

The questions of this evening had brought forth memories; some painful, some pleasent. He remembered some things very clearly; the first time he had seen James's invisibility cloak, the time they hexed Snape in front of Lily, and the first time the Marauders had gotten collectively drunk at the Three Brooksticks.

Sirius considered his life; a cycle of terror, happiness, betrayl and death. His early years were certainly a terror; Mother Black had made damn sure of that. Then, happiness when he attended Hogwarts and met his fellow Marauders, and for a short while after his graduation. Then, betrayl and death when Peter had betrayed them all to Voldemort, causing James's and Lily's deaths.

It didn't stop there; the terror came again in the dark shade of the Dementors of Azkaban. The happiness following was short-lived, as Harry's love for Sirius had betrayed him and led to Sirius's death.

_The cycle appeares to be- for the moment, at least- broken._Sirius thought, looking at his Pensieve resting on the table by his chair. _But when will it resume again?_

"It'll resume again in Transfiguration." a 15-year-old Sirius told his friends, grinning deviously. The 'it' he referred to was a prank he was testing out; a Serpent Charm he called it.

"Now, what again is this supposed to do? I missed it earlier." James asked. "Well, whenever someone whistles, the targeted victim, namely Snivellus, coils down on the floor, and then rises up much like a snake to a snake charmer. Hence, the name."

"Sirius, mate, if you devoted even a 100th of your mind to study, you'd top even Evans in grades." Remus said; no matter what he said, his three friends absolutely _refused_ to study.

"Remus, remember what I said last time?" Remus smirked at this. "Yeah, and as I recall, it was _just _as McGonagall was walking by..." Sirius blushed, though no one cared whether it was in embarrassment or anger; they were too busy laughing. After trying (and failing) to look angry, Sirius started laughing too.

Indeed, the charm resumed at the time Sirius said. He whistled in class, as was his habit of late, and sure enough, 15-year-old Severus Snape of Slytherin House curled up on the floor, and began to rise. Each time the music swelled, his tongue would flick in and out of his mouth.

To give each other a chance to laugh, the Marauders took turns whistling. The class caught on, causing Snape to do many unnatural maneuvres in his jinxed state. McGonagall, however, hadn't missed who had been doing the whistling first.

"Misters Black, Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew, detention tonight with Hagrid."

Sirius laughed at this particular memory; it had been one of his earlier works. And one of the most successful, at that.

He sobered at the next memory, remembering this night almost as if even a Pensieve couldn't completely remove it from his mind.

"James, what's wrong, mate?" Sirius asked his friend, who was currently moping on a couch in the Gryffindor Common Room. It was far past bedtime; but the Prefects wouldn't dare disturb James when Sirius had asked them not to; they would rather the Slytherins contiune to be the Marauders' targets. Even Evans had agreed not to disturb him, though her leniency seemed more out of pity than fear of the Marauders.

"Nothing." James responded. Sirius knew him all too well, though. "Who is she?" Sirius asked. James responded "Damn it Sirius, it's noth- it's... it's Lily Evans." he finished quietly.

"LI-" Sirius started to shout, before bringing his voice down. "Lily Evans? Lily The Bitch Evans? Evans, bane of our existance and menace of mischief makers everywhere? Lily-" Sirius was about to continue his tirade when James cut him off.

"Yes, _that_ Lily, Sirius." Sirius considered his friend for a moment. "You've got it real bad, don't you?" James's only response was to nod.

"Well... what are you going to do about it? You know that she's with-" Sirius started.

"THANK YOU, but I know who she's with right now!" James snarled.

Sirius immidiately went on the defensive. "Hey, hey, don't get mad at me. I'm not exactly in charge of who she fancies, you know. If I were..."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry mate, I'm just in a pissed off mood right now." James said apologetically.

Lily chose that moment to reveal herself. Sirius made a quick exit by means of a "Um, eh, er, see you later, mate!" and a mad dash up the stairs.

Lily and James regarded one another. Their eyes met; James's filled with anger and sorrow, Lily's filled with pity and... compassion? "James..."

Sirius sighed as that memory ended. He hadn't seen what had happened, but he had found out the results the next morning... along with the rest of House Gryffindor.

"Sirius, mate, look at this!" Peter whispered to Sirius, gesturing to the sleeping forms of James and Lily. Both were fully clothed, of course; neither would dare risk anything in the common room. "Go get Remus." Sirius said, barely able to contain his mirth.

"Over there," Peter said, pointing to the prematurely-grey lad with his face in one hand, the other hand balled up into a fist to help contain any laughter that might slip out.

Eventually, James and Lily woke up, eyes widening to what had been previously thought to be well-nigh impossible width. James's words summed up both of their thoughts. Common room staring at them, all he could say was "Oh shit...". The common erupted into complete pandemonium.

The three Marauders could no longer keep themselves from rolling with laughter. James, laughing himself, attacked Sirius for laughing at him. Then Peter jumped in to help Sirius. Even Remus joined them- officially, to break it up. Unofficially... he wanted to even up the odds.

The Marauders ended up rolling around the floor of the Gryffindor Common Room, a mass of tangled limbs and laughing faces, all with the goal of killing each other for whatever trivial offense had started this mockery of a brawl in the first place. Lily stood off to the side, laughing along with the rest of Gryffindor. And for once in her life... she was happy.

Thus did Lily Evans and James Potter commence their romance, the romance that would culminate in the savior of the wizarding world. At that point, neither of would have cared. All they could think about was each other.

Sirius looked away from the Pensieve; watching those fond memories was too much for him. He found he even missed Peter. _But then, the Peter we knew at Hogwarts has been dead for years. I know that Peter would never betray us. What happened?_

Near the Dark Portal, watching the Orcs come through, Wormtail felt something at the back of his mind. It was a strange feeling- anger, resentment, and... was that sadness?- all somehow mixed into one feeling. The Death Eater Wormtail, once a man named Peter Pettigrew, unknowinly asked himself the same question his former comrade was asking himself: _What happened?_

R&R. Sorry for the long wait- I had to get the Marauder Era right. The next chapter, Memories Part Two: Love Lost, should be out sometime tommorrow.


	9. Memories Part Two: What Have I Become?

CHAPTER NINE: MEMORIES PART TWO: WHAT HAVE I BECOME?

Just as Sirius was thinking of the past that night, so too was Severus Snape. After the incident with Harry looking into his Pensieve last year, he had begun to examine his past again- something he had avoided doing for years.

Snape's life was hardly a happy one. There had been one time- but no, that time was long gone, a ship sailed and sunk years ago.

Fifth-year Slytherin Severus Snape walked through the corridors of Hogwarts towards the Great Hall. He kept his gaze forward as he walked through the doors and towards Slytherin the table. He did, however, see the current object of his affection out of the corner of his eye.

Their relationship was a secret one; in private, they were so affectionate one would forget he was a Slytherin; in public, the venom directed at each other seemed to preclude any sort of friendship between the two- much less a relationship!

He ate, as did she; the both of them exchanging secrative glances that no one else noticed. No one, of course. Except for Lucius Malfoy.

"Severus, why do you keep staring at that bloody Gryffindor?" Lucius asked, voice full of obvious politeness. "Who I choose to stare at is none of your concern." Snape replied coldly.

Lucius started laughing. "No, I don't suppose it is. But what _is_ my concern is what's going on between the two of you- and how it will affect the Dark Lord's plans."

"It will have no affect whatsoever. She is merely... entertainment." Snape said, hating himself for having said such words. Accepting the statement as true, Lucius went back to his lunch.

Snape looked away from the Pensieve; oh, how he wished those words had been true! The pain, the agony, the heartbreak; none would exist if the girl had indeed been just entertainment.

Still, things never turned out the way he expected. Snape never expected their breakup. And he never expected the way things went with Voldemort that same night.

"Hello, Severus." Lily Evans said, embracing her current love.

"Lily. How was your day?" Severus asked in the manner of a return greeting. They were in an obscure corner of the castle, thanks to their positions as Prefects.

"Oh, it was alright. By the way, that was a most... interesting dance you did in Transfigurations today." Lily responded; she had grown fond of teasing him regarding the prank war against the Marauders he was always involved in.

"Oh yes, I'd been practicing all night for it." Snape replied dryly. Lily just giggled. They continued to talk, and Severus picked up on the fact that Lily was nervous about something.

"Is there something wrong, Lily?" Snape asked. "No... yes, Severus. I don't know how to put this gently..."

There was no reason to continue the sentence; Snape already knew the answer. "No need to continue, Evans" he said coldly, causing her to wince. "I understand. You wish to terminate our relationship."

"'Terminate's a strong word." she said. Snape responded again, a bit less cold this time."But no less accurate. I suppose this is the part where you tell me we can still be 'just friends'?"

Lily just nodded. "Funny, you women. You always want to be our friends a_fter_ you rip our guts out." She could think of no response; she wasn't in love with him, and did not wish to string him along, yet she valued his friendship. How could she work this out?

Snape sighed. "I will... consider it. Goodnight, Evans." he said crisply, before turning on his heel and moving towards Slytherin tower.

Lily walked into Gryffindor tower, and overheard a conversation between Sirius Black and James Potter.

James Potter. She had sworn never to love him, and yet... she did. Funny, the way love works.

Meanwhile, Snape had gone to his chambers, bringing along Lucius Malfoy with him. "You're making the right choice, Severus." His friend said to him.

"I have had my eye on you for some time now, young Severus Snape" said Voldemort from the fireplace. "Your talents in the Dark Arts and Potions would benefit our cause greatly. Will you join us? Will you help us cleanse our people, and lead them into a new era for all wizardkind?" Voldemort said; it was his usual recruitment speech in those times.

_With words like that, it's a wonder anyone willingly joins up at all!_ Snape thought. "I care not for what happens to Mudbloods or Muggles; all I can promise you is my loyal service."

Voldemort considered Snape. "If you care not of their fate... then why do you join." Severus smiled grimly; he only had to say one word. "Revenge."

In the present, Snape sighed. He had made one of the most stupid mistakes of his life that night; blinded by pain and anger, he had sided with the Death Eaters.

His mistake had, however, led to Voldemort's defeat during the First War. If not for him, the Potters would have been assassinated long before Halloween of 1981.

Then again, if not for him, maybe the Potters wouldn't have been assassinated at all.

"Pettigrew." Snape, now 20 years old, said to Peter Pettigrew, Auror and close friend of the Potters. He was also their secret-keeper. "Let's get this over with, Snape." Peter said.

Ever since November of 1980, Severus Snape had been a spy for the Order of the Phoenix. His information had led to the capture of numerous Death Eaters.

Tonight, he was escorting a nemesis of his Hogwarts-days, Peter Pettigrew, to where the Death Eaters Nott and the Lestranges were supposed to be meeting to commence a raid on the Ministry of Magic.

The two of them walked through Muggle London (no chance of Death Eaters seeing them there) until they reached the Leaky Cauldron, where the Death Eaters were supposed to be meeting. Snape, under a Guise Charm, sat down with an also-Guised Peter at a table. Part of the operation was to appear to be two old friends having a drink together; Snape would leave before the actual bust.

"So, Snape... we're supposed to be talking... what topic do you suggest?" Peter asked after a spell, nearly bored to tears. Snape gave a small grin. "Well, I suppose we could discuss your multiple pranks from Hogwarts."

Peter retreated fast. "No, no, I'd rather forget that foolishness. However- I do have a question for you." "Ask." Snape responded.

"What exactly was going on between you and Lily in 5th year?" Snape's face went white. "How do you know about that?"

Peter grinned, more so mischeviously than at Snape's reaction. "Snape, we all knew. Hell, the night the lovebirds got together, James was complaining about you to Sirius!"

Snape hadn't realized that everyone knew. "How noticeable were we?" He didn't want to ask, but he had to know nonetheless. "Very. Hatred that strong between men and women simply doesn't exist in reality. All Hogwarts knew it was a cover."

Snape considered this. "I have a question now: why did you four hate me so much?"

Peter sighed. "Because you were easy to hate when we were young. It was easy- us against you. You responded, too; that was part of the fun. Attack Snape, dodge his counterattack, and launch a counter-counterattack while laughing at him. That was our plan, and it always worked." "Do you still hate me?" Snape asked, curious.

"No." Peter said. "Although I can only speak for myself and Remus- we never truly hated you. We just pranked people for fun. It was really James and Sirius who hated you. And you know the reason for that."

Snape said grimly "Yes, I do. That was a stupid mistake on my part." Peter smiled. "If you admitted that to them they might start to hate you less." Any further conversation was cut off as the Death Eaters left their table and disapperaed into Diagon Alley.

"I have to go after them. Don't worry about your cover; Moody gave me a special Memory Charm before I left Auror HQ." "Good luck, Peter." Snape said. "And to you." The young Auror said as he left. That was the last time Severus would see Peter Pettigrew for many long years.

Snape was in shock. Why did he leave this in his Pensieve? It seemed such a good memory! Then he realized it: he left it after the Potters had died. He wanted to keep his hatred strong, to keep his pain at bay.

Realizing what had happened to him over the years Snape started to cry. Not a big production- just a small cry to let our the pain that had built up within him for all the 33 years of his life. _What have I become?_

Snape then sat down at his desk. He wrote several letters in rapid succession. No one at Hogwarts would've recognized the Potions Master in that moment. The letters went out: one for Harry Potter, one for Sirius Black, and one for Remus Lupin.

That done, Snape felt that he had, at long last, come to terms with his past, and started to make amends for all the mistakes in his life. For the first time ever, Severus Snape drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.

R&R, s'il vous plait.


	10. The Silver Hand

CHAPTER 10: THE SILVER HAND

AN: For those of you who read The Tragedy of Peter Pettigrew, this storyline will seem familiar.

As Snape's letters left his office, Albus Dumbledore, Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, and Sextus Maxwell were pouring through tome upon tome in the restricted section while Gaius made supply runs.

They needed a way to close the portal to the world of Gre'nor. The Orc Elarik had brought his army to Hogwarts, and they were patrolling the Forbidden Forest. Already, 20 Death Eaters had been found. Only one escaped death at the Orcs' hands.

Wormtail was brought into the library by Elarik. Sirius Black was summoned, as were Severus Snape and Harry Potter. Harry and Sirius exchanged uneasy glances with Snape, then turned to join the others in questioning the captured Death Eater.

Peter wouldn't talk of anything relating to Voldemort, nor would he say anything at all; he just cowered in a chair, looking around fearfully. His animagus power was disabled by Dumbledore, as to prevent his escape.

Just as all prepared to summon more Aurors to take him to Azkaban, Harry thought of something: Wormtail owed him a life-debt!

"Wait a minute," Harry said. All eyes turned to him. "Leave me alone with him. I can get the information." All hesitated, but, one by one, left after Dumbledore told them to. "We'll be outside if he tries anything, Harry." Sirius said.

And thus, Harry Potter and Wormtail were alone. "Wormtail, you owe me a life debt. I want to know everything you know. The strength of Voldemort's army, how to close the portal, what Voldemort's plans are, and why you betrayed my parents."

Wormtail was more compelled to tell Harry what he wanted to know by the life debt than could've been acomplished through even Veritaserum. He gave away troop strengths, battle plans, who led what armies, even the spell to destroy the portal. But he knew not which artifact to use.

"Then let's move on. Why did you betray my parents?" Harry asked, no longer concerned about the required artifact; he was certain that, now that the spell was known, the artifact wasn't far behind.

"I never betrayed your parents; I was never their secret-keeper." Harry was confused; although Sirius had pretended to be secret-keeper, Peter was the one who had been chosen. "I don't understand; how can you say this? You gave out the secrets they entrusted to you; isn't that bet-"

Harry was cut off. "I gave secrets that weren't mine to keep of give!" Wormtail cried. "I am not Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew died the night I was born; I merely inhabit his body. When the Dark Lord couldn't break Pettigrew, he locked his conciousness away, and replaced it with me, the Death Eater Wormtail!"

"You expect me to believe that!?!" Harry shouted. "Yes! Yes, I do! I cannot lie... the wizard's debt prevents me from it..." Wormtail broke down, sobbing. Harry walked out of the room, his face showing disgust because of the pathetic sight behind him.

"So, this isn't really Peter. Right. That's bull-" Sirius was cut off by a cough from Dumbledore, who's eyes were shining in their usual amused way; as if he always saw something everyone else did not.

"Actually, Black, it's quite possible. Likely, even. I remember Pettigrew from the last mission I acted as his informant- and from his first times in the Death Eater meetings. It's impossible for someone's personality to change so drastically in so short a period of time." Snape said.

"I have to agree with Snape on this one." Remus said. Unlike Harry and Sirius, he had accepted the letter sent to him, and had, in fact, been happy to recieve it. It offered some closure for Remus. Some peace at last.

"As do I, Sirius. Severus is correct. As is our friend Wormtail. Under the Wizard's Debt, he can tell no lies, no matter how damaging they may be to him. Harry, ask him what spell was used, and I can reverse it." Dumbledore said, finalizing the matter. Rivals or no, Sirius and Snape would always defer to the great man's judgement.

"What spell was used, Wormtail?" Harry asked as he walked back into the room. "Spell? What spell?" Wormtail answered. He knew full well what spell Harry was talking about; he would try to evade as long as he could. Wirzard's debt or no, Wormtail still held a high sense of self-preservation.

It was all for nothing. Harry went straight to the point. "What spell did Voldemort use to place you over Peter Pettigrew's conciousness?" Wormtail tried to evade again. "How would I know? I was created by a second spell-" "But you have all of Peter's memories, as you told me. Tell me the spell, I know it is withing your ability to do so."

No more evasions. "The first spell used was the Mind Suppression Curse. The second was the Mental Webweaver spell." Harry smiled; it wasn't a pleasant smile, either. It was more of a... predatory smirk. Whatever the proper description was, it chilled Wormtail to the very bone.

The spells used called for a casting circle; it was an ancient art, mostly forgotten. the Old Spells required one, but with the advent of the New Spells (which comprise the majority of the Hogwarts curriculum), casting circles fell out of use due to sheer complexity.

The powdered amythest and rose quartz were spread out, charmed to enhance the magic in that area of the world. Wormtail and Dumbledore were placed inside it, and a shield charm was erected.

"_Menti Reparo!_" Dumbledore shouted, an emerald beam flying directly from his wand to Wormtail's skull. The Death Eater screamed, and died. The silver hand Voldemort had given him fell off, and the rest of the man fell to the floor in a rather hard way. Dumbledore muttered a few words, and Pettigrew's arm was restored.

"Wh... what happened? Where am I?" Peter Pettigrew spoke, word coming out of his mouth, and not Wormtail's, for the first time in so many years. He looked up. "Dumbledore?" He then passed out.

"I suggest we let Mr. Pettigrew rest. We have a weapon now; a weapon with which to destroy Voldemort." Dumbledore said.

The rest were amazed. "What is that, Professor?" Harry voiced the question on everyone's mind.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Why, the silver hand."

Voldemort was happy. He was powerful again; powerful enough to defeat even Dumbledore.

Thus he was very disturbed when he felt the death of Wormtail... and the restoration of Peter Pettigrew.

_Ahh, Wormtail. My favored servant, my loyal one. I created you, molded you, perfected you. And now, you are but a memory._ Voldemort was no longer happy; he was angry. He had come to regard Wormtail as his best servant and... dare he say it? As a _son_.

"Lucius!" He bellowed, calling his new second-in-command.

"Master, how can I serve you?" Malfoy said, prostrating himself before Voldemort.

"Send a squadron of Death Eaters, Dread Champions and Skeletons to Hogwarts! They've killed Wormtail!"

Lucius had despised the whimpering man known as Wormtail, but knew better than to voice this; it was well known that if you voiced anything against that man... _things_ were known to happen.

"It shall be done, master. Master?" Lucius said, then asked as the leader of the Death Eaters fell over.

Voldemort screamed. And he never stopped.

Harry Potter screamed after he cast Crucio on the silver hand; the link worked! He wasted no time in following through with the plan...

R&R, s'il vous plait.


	11. The Skull of Grindelwald

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE SKULL OF GRINDELWALD

Whist Harry and his allies were interrogating Wormtail and reviving Peter Pettigrew, I'thok was in his tower, guarded by two Dread Champions.

He was immersed in the numerous magical texts of Earth, studying human spells and potions. he considered nothing too miniscule or unimportant for study; he desired to know all magic spells possible.

He knew that his usefulness to Voldemort was waning, and he needed to be able to survive in a battle, should it come to that.

It was while he was perusing a volumn on the Dark Arts when he was summoned to Voldemort's chamber by Lucius Malfoy.

Harry cast the Avada Kedavra on the silver hand, causing it to incinerate in emerald flame.

The spell was transmitted to Voldemort, though, and Harry felt it instantly. His scar glowed bright green, and a green-tinted smoke began to rise from it. Suddenly, the smoke ceased, and the scar started to glow white rather than green.

The pain ceased, but Harry had to keep his eyes closed, such was the intensity of the light from his scar. The scar then left his head, coming to a stop mid-air 2 feet in front of him, still glowing. Where it had once been, only normal skin remained.

The scar then spun thrice and disintegrated, a small cloud of dust drifting to the floor. The link between Harry, Lily, and Voldemort was broken. Harry then passed out, partly from exhaustion, but mostly from the now-gone pain.

I'thok watched Voldemort roll on the floor in agony, seeping green energy from his body. malfoy had inquired as to what could be done, and I'thok said he could do nothing. This was true; the only way to stop the Avada Kedavra was to prevent it in the first place.

I'thok did know one thing he could do, though. "Malfoy, though I cannot save this body, I can raise his spirit. All I require is a skeleton, the _Tome of Gril'dok_ from my library, and privacy."

Malfoy immidiately moved to fulfill I'thok's needs. As Voldemort was about to finally and truly die, I'thok bent down to whisper in his ear. "Know this before you die: I have won. You will live again, but you will be my servant. And no one- not even your puppet Malfoy- will be the wiser!"

Thus, with a shout of pain and anger, Voldemort died... and subsequently evaporated.

Harry spent the mext day in the infirmary next to the only other patient: Peter Pettigrew. Madam Pomfrey was able to restore Peter's arm, but he was still recovering from the years spent as a recessed part of his own mind.

Peter spent most of the day telling Harry of the adventures he and the other Marauders used to go on: the kitchen raids, the Room of Requirement, and (the most entertaining by far, for Harry anyway) how the Marauders managed to circumvent the alarm system to the Girls' Dormitory.

It was the Marauder's 4th year at Hogwarts. They had explored every area of the castle, from Dumbledore's office to the Slytherin dungeons, except for one place: the Girls' Dormitories.

Officially (for the Marauders, anyway), this was an impediment for the Marauders' Map. Unofficially... it was an excuse to find out how to spy on the girls.

They had figured out the best way to get around the alarm was to use a disguise charm. So, they modified one to make themselves appear, at least to the alarm wards, to be female. To test whether this had worked or not, they made a replica of the Gryffindor Common Room in the Room of Requirement.

After about 20 or so failures, they finally got the charm right. They decided to test it the next night. Under cover of disguise charms and invisibility cloak, they became the first men since the Founders to walk the stairs of the Gryffindor (or any)Girls' Dormintory.

It was here that James's infatuation with Lily started, as the boys saw her get up to drink some water. He noticed her immidiately... as well as her lack of clothing. He never knew that girls slept in such... interesting nightclothes.

"Moving on" Sirius whispered angrily, tiring of looking at only one girl. Peter noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that James kept his eyes on the sleeping girl until she was no longer visible.

Harry was released that afternoon, and spent much of the day with Hermione; Ron had decided to leave the two of them alone.

Thus it was that Harry and Hermione were walking by the lake, talking and joking with each other.

"So, how do I look without the scar?" Harry asked. "You look good... but I kind of miss it."

"Well, I'm sure my hair still qualifies as unique... perhaps instead of 'scarhead', Malfoy'll call me... what?" Harry said as Hermione started laughing.

"I-if you say mophead..." she couldn't finish, such was her laughter.

"You will pay for that." Harry said mock-sinisterly. Hermione faked a look of horror. "No. Harry... Harry, get away from me... Harry!" she squealed as he began to mercilessly tickle her.

They rolled around in the grass, until both were panting for breath. Both noticed their faces scant inches from each others', but felt no shame or embarrasment; rather, they closed the distance, and kissed quite passionately.

Neither noticed that in the bark of the closest tree was carved a heart with the inscription "J L" in the center.

R&R, s'il vous plait. Sorry for the short chapter, but the next one will be longer.


	12. Innuendo

CHAPTER TWELVE: INNUENDO

AN: The title is self-explanitory. If you do not like this type of humor, then

Harry Potter was in an extremely good mood this morning. He was- for the moment- free. Voldemort was dead, they knew how to close the portal, and his scar was gone.

His next conflict started at lunch that day. It started out innocently enough- Hermione, missing the muggle world just a bit, had one of her favorite desserts- a popsicle. She had been throughly enjoying it, when she noticed most of the Gryffindor boys avoiding looking at her.

She blushed when she realized what it appeared she was doing. _Honestly! Do they think of nothing but sex?_ Hermione thought aggrivatedly. She looked at Harry; he was trying the hardest not to look at her. Ron, she noticed, looked quite amused at the whole thing.

She decided to have some fun with the poor boys. She began licking the popsicle in a very suggestive manner, and when she put it into her mouth again, she let a out a very faint moan- low enough to be ignored unless you had someone's- in this case, every male student within hearing distance- attention.

Then unexpectedly, she bit down on the popsicle, cutting it neatly in half. All men in the Great Hall grimaced; Hermione could've sword that even _Dumbledore_ had a small expression of pain flicker briefly across his face.

As she got up to go to her next class, she said to Harry and Ron "Enjoy your lunch, boys." And with a mischevious smile, she was gone.

"Damn. That was unexpected." Ron said to Harry. "I know... somehow, that was aimed at me, I just know it!" Harry said in reply. Ron smirked. "She was trying to get you all hot and bothered."

"I know. I need to get her back... but how?" Harry asked. It was Gaius who answered. "I know exactly the way. We'll need Malfoy's help, but that shouldn't be a problem. Hey, Blaise!" Gaius said, motioning the raven-haired Slytherin over to his table.

"That was a most... _interesting_ demonstration your little Hermione put on, Potter." Blaise said by way of greeting, eyes full of mischief. "Indeed it was. We need your help getting her back. We'll also need Malfoy." Gaius said. Gaius being the only one of the Gryffindor boys who knew Blaise well, Harry and Ron wisely decided to let him handle her.

"I can't help you all that much; I have no experiance in pranks. But I'll tell Malfoy." Gaius smiled at Blaise's statement. "Good. Give him this." A piece of rolled-up parchment appeared in Gaius's hand. He then gave it to Blaise. As Blaise walked off to Slytherin table, Gaius said "This is what we're going to do..."

By the time Gaius finished briefing his two fellow Gryffindor conspirators, he looked over to Slytherin table. There, he saw Malfoy smirking in his direction. And nod.

"Most interesting behavior." Snape deadpanned. Sirius grinned. "Indeed. I wonder if Harry and his friends plan to make a counterattack."

"I imagine they do; most likely in my class." Snape said. Sirius kept grinning.

"Interesting? Severus, Sirius, that was some of the most attrocious behavior I have ever seen in the Great Hall!" McGonagall said. Secretly, she thought what Hermione had done was hilarious; but she wasn't about to say so.

"Including the Valentine's Day Cupidity?" Sirius said, laughing at the momory of the Marauder's best 6th year prank. Oddly, Snape laughed as well.

"Incluing that." Now McGonagall _had_ thought that one attrocious; a large pile of Cupid droppings had landed on her head.

"Well, if you say so. By the way," Sirius said, indicating Malfoy's smirk and nod, "it appears your house is in on it as well."

Snape then grinned as well. "Then this," he said, "should be most interesting."

"Hmph!" was all Minerva McGonagall could say.

Hermione was nervous. She didn't like the sadistic grins on the faces of Harry, Ron, Draco and Gaius. No, she didn't like them at all.

Professor Snape walked in, and class begun. They weren't brewing any potions that day; otherwise, the prank would've had to wait.

Right as Hermione was about to answer a question, she let out a little yelp. Her seat had vibrated. She heard stifled laughter from behind her. _Oh, shit..._

And thus it was, all period long. She never managed to get out a coherent sentence. When it got to be too much, she stood up and requested permission to go to the bathroom.

"Very well, Miss Granger. Go do what you must." This caused a fresh round of stifled laughter.

"Oh, and Miss Granger?" Snape asked right as she reached the door; she turned to look at him. Snape was smirking. "Maybe you'll think twice about such behavior in the Great Hall next time?" Hermione left the classroom, this time outright laughter following her. Oh, those boys were going to pay. They were going to pay _dearly_.

At dinner, Hermione decided not to repeat her earlier performance with the popsicle; it would be too obvious as to what she was doing. No, this one would have to focus more on the subtleties of innuendo.

For dessert this time, she had a rather juicy fruit- a slice of watermelon. She carefully, slowly sucked the juice out of the watermelon before finally consuming it.

Smiling innocently, she left- but not before she shot a quick smirk at the three Gryffindor boys. "I have an idea for this one." Harry said, referring to their planned counterstrike.

"What is it?" Ron asked, curious. "Hermione once mentioned how much she enjoyed Muggle romance novels. Some of them can get rather, err, _detailed_, so I could discuss one woth you and Gaius..." Harry trailed off.

"One sec," Gaius said, heading for Slytherin table. "Damn, he can get just about anything from Blaise, can't he?" Ron remarked.

Later that night, the Gryffindor 6th year boys' dorm was empty; Seamus and Dead were out in the castle with their dates; Neville was strangely missing as well. When Harry asked about Neville's whereabouts, Gaius would only offer a little smile and say that he was "being distracted."

All went according to plan; the plan that Gaius and Ron had come up with on their own, not Harry's. They had thought that, after this little attack, the boys' dorm would have to be emptied; therefore, Gaius and Ron had enlisted Ginny and Luna's help.

The novel was quite steamy indeed; Hermione was listening from around the corner; Gaius was having difficulty not laughing at her from under Harry's invisibility cloak.

Hermione's next move shocked all present. She walked around from the corner, grabbed Harry, and led him up ste stairs. Once the two were gone, Gaius remarked dryly "Good thing we cleared the dorm." It was all Ron could to not burst out laughing.

R&R, s'il vous plait.


	13. The Magic of Dried Leaves

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE MAGIC OF DRIED LEAVES

The sounds of war filled the Orcish base camps all over Britain. They were on the march at last.

The death of Voldemort had caused the Orcs to halt their attack plans. Yet now, under the leadership of I'thok and Lucius Malfoy, they would march once again.

"To Hogwarts! To Victory or Defeat! Most importantly... TO BATTLE!" I'thok shouted, causing the blood of the Orcs to flow even hotter than it already was. With a great warcry, the armies began to march.

Mounted on two creatures that the Dread Champions rode, I'thok and Malfoy conversed.

"I will be able to raise the Dark Lord very soon; the reason that we're marching is to pacify the men."

Lucius glanced at his companion. "Standard Orcish procedure... of something else?"

I'thok smiled, revealing his yellowed teeth and making his tusks stand out. "Standard Orcish procedure. Especially for the Warlocks... we can't maintain power without giving the commoners what they are raised to want... a fight. Regardless of who controls the various clans, we control the entire Orchish race, be it through direct rule, blackmail, bribary, threats of assassination."

"A most... interesting system. Why not just exterminate them?" Lucius questioned, his Death Eater indoctrination rising to the surface.

I'thok chuckled. "Why, then there would be no entertainment!" He laughed a bit, then darkened. "And if we lacked them, there would be nothing to occupy my allies... nothing to prevent them from taking some... rash actions."

Lucius shuddered. Was that what was in store for them? The defeat of the Light and the Muggles, and then... power struggles? Pureblood verses Pureblood? What was in store fo them, indeed...

Harry and Hermione were the subject of the morning's conversations; the so-called "Innudendo War" was, just as Fred and George's flight the year before, already becoming a Hogwarts legend.

The exagerations were large and varied; some swore Hermione was undressing Harry as they went up the stairs, others insisted that Harry had been carrying her up to the Boy's Dormitory. Yet another version of the story said that Hermione had said "Upstairs. Bed. NOW.", whilst others laid that phrase at Harry's feet... or, as the matter was, his mouth.

So, naturally, when they entered the Great Hall for breakfast, they were greeted with an assortment of cheers, applause, and wolf whistles.

"When I find out who started this..." Hermione trailed off threateningly.

Ron spoke up tenatively. "Uh, Hermione, it started with that piclesop-" "Popsicle, Ron." "-right, thanks Harry- popsicle you were, ah... enjoying yesterday."

"Shut up." Hermione growled, her look very frightening at this point. "I may have started the thing, but I certainly didn't do half of what the rumors say!"

Ron raised his eyebrows, surprised. "If you did even a _quarter_ of what the rumors say..." Harry and Hermione tried hard , but failed, not to blush.

Ron chuckled. "'Upstairs. Bed. Now.' indeed."

Before class, in the DADA classroom, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Snape were conversing quite sociably; that is to say, there weren't any death threats or hexes being thrown around.

They were discussing days gone by, friends lost, and the sheer amount of _time_ lost.

"I have a question, if you will answer." Snape said. "How exactly did you know where everything was in Hogwarts?"

The three Marauders grinned, echoing their Hogwarts years. "A little piece of parchment known as the Marauder's Map. You tried to take it from Harry in his third year, Snape." Remus said.

"Ah. So that's what he had. Now, exactly why did it insult me?" Snape asked. Sirius answered this time. "It was charmed so that only the proper words could open it; it insults all who fail to use the correct password."

Snape just grunted in response, slightly annoyed. Why couldn't they ever do anything useful? After all, what was the use of a locked map?

Muggle Studies turned out to be -for some- the most horrifying, and -for others- the most hilarious class of the year.

"Today, we will be studying the Muggle use of drugs." The eyes of all the Muggleborn/raised in the room (Harry, Hermione and Gaius) widened.

"Here is a sample of the most popular one, a dried leaf called Marijuana." the professor stated. "Now, class, I ask you to sample- SAMPLE!- it only. Otherwise, you will enter a deluded, crazed state that the Muggles call 'high'." It was too much; Harry and Hermione started laughing, while Gaius only had a little smile on his face.

The wizardborns obediently smoked their little Marijuana cigarettes, when Gaius got an idea. A very sick, twisted, cruel idea. With a simple spell, he magnified the chemicals in the small samples to where they were equivalent to a whole Marijuana cigarette. Then he caused a bit of knockout gas to be inhaled by the professor, who promptly collapsed in his desk.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked, watching his subtle wand movements. "Oh, just teaching kids to "Say no to drugs!". Harry chuckled; Hermione wore a look of horror.

This horror was magnified when Ron walked (ambled, really) over to them. "Heeey, Herm-EYE-oh-NEEE. Whasup?" "Ron," Gaius said gently, "why don't you go and dance with Malfoy?" Ron looked puzzled for a moment; he then brightened, and said "OK!"

Soon, Malfoy and Ron were dancing in a very formal way... which then became perverted to looking quite sick. In most corners, couples were snogging... several sans clothing. Ginny looked annoyed, as did Luna; their boyfriends wouldn't stop dancing! So, they decided to help each other out, and - much to Hermione's distress, Harry's half-nausea/half-entertainment, and Gaius's amazement- started kissing.

"What-did-you-do?" Blaise asked, barely coherent, as she grabbed Gaius by the collar. "Oh, a little lesson for our friends. Here" he said, uttering a small charm "this should clear your head up. Just go sit down for a little while."

Then the door to the classroom opened, and in stepped Cho Chang, followed by Severus Snape. "Professor, can Miss Chang take... her tes... WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE!?!" Snape bellowed, surveying the chaos.

"Well, Professor Snape, they class is simply learning not to do Muggle drugs." Gaius stated simply. Snape, realizing that Gaius was responsible, but that there was no proof... smirked. "Keep up the good work, Mr. Maxwell." And with that, Snape turned and walked down the hall, robes billowing behind him. Cho looked at Gaius and smiled. "You certainly throw a wild party." Then she, too, was gone. All non-drugged members of the class (by this time, Blaise was included in this number) simply wore looks of shock on their faces at Cho's statement.


	14. Hogsmeade

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: HOGSMEADE

WARNING: This chapter contains a bit of slash, inserted FOR HUMOR AND PLOT PURPOSES ONLY. I won't have any permanent major slash in the story; that is to say, none fo the main characters will be involved in that sort of thing.

"No. NO, Gaius, that's just sick..." Hermione tried, her face giving her away. The closet door shut; it's two occupants were in for quite a surprise... when they awakened, that is.

An important lesson had been learned that day in Muggle Studies that day: drugs and wizards make an even worse mix than drugs and Muggles.

"Oh, come on, they deserve it... it'll give them some 'quality time'." Blaise said, before she, too, started laughing.

"Who else do you suppose are in the closets?" Harry asked. "Well," Gaius said, surveying the classroom, "given the people _not_ here, and the articles of clothing that _are_..." he trailed off.

"Well... who's who?" Hermione asked, curiosity eating away at her.

"Good question... well, apart from our dear friends Ron and Draco in here, let's see..." Gaius stopped in front of one, and used a charm to determine who was in that closet. "Eh... Longbottom, Creevey, Parkinson, and Bullstrode." he read, disgusted at the mental image the names produced. "It would appear that the chemicals in marijuana react rather badly with wizarding brain hormones." Gaius remarked dryly.

Harry and Hermione laughed, but Blaise, being Wizard-born, missed the joke. "What?" she asked; all she got for a response was a "never mind" from Gaius.

"Aaannndd, behind closet door nukber two! We have... Thomas, Finnigan, Brown, and Patil... Parvati, that is." Gaius said.

"And in this one... dear Lord!" Gaius cried. "Eh, I'm not saying."

"Tell us!" Hermione yelled. "Nope, you'll find out on your own."

Gaius said, clearly showing that he wouldn't budge on the issue.

Ron stirred. He wondered where he was... and why was it so dark? He looked over, and saw en equally horrified Draco Malfoy.

Both boys screamed, and ran out of the closet to encounter a laughing Harry and Hermione. "You did this, Potter!" Draco shouted.

"No, no, it was Gaius. Speaking of which," Harry said, "classes are over for the day. Let's head down to dinner."

The four of them left once Ron and Draco had recovered their (thankfully) few missing clothes. Blaise joined them shortly, followed by several recovered students. "Gaius is finishing them up."

Later, a few more came, followed by Gaius, Luna, and Ginny. "What took you so long?" Ron asked.

"Unlike some people, we didn't have the urge to run away screaming from that class, Ron." Ginny said; only Hermione noticed the slight tremor in her voice. Ron just shrugged and went back to his Quidditch discussion with Harry. Gaius mouthed 'later' to Hermione's questioning glance.

"Virginia? Are you alright?" Draco asked Ginny after dinner; both were prefects and, as such, had an excuse for meadering about the corridors after dinner.

"Yes!... no, Draco, I'm not alright." Ginny started out strong, but faltered as she finished.

"Well?" her companion pried. "I...sleptwithlunaearlier."

"Come again?" Draco asked.

"I... well, when we were... you know... in Muggle Studies... I did... err... with Luna..."

"You shagged Luna Lovegood?" Draco asked, not sounding at all shocked. Ginny merely nodded.

"Heh... you two spend enough time together... this _was_ just an experiment or something, right?" Draco asked, wondering is his girl was leaving him for... another girl!

"Yes, absolutely. Wouldn't have even happened if I wasn't in such an intoxicated state." Ginny said, relieved that Draco wasn't mad.

"Ok... what about when we-" Draco was cut off.

"THAT's different," she said, hitting him in the side for bringing it up in the corridors... where Ron could hear.

"I want to know what's going on. Now." Hermione told Gaius as she sat down in the remote corner of the Gryffindor common room where Gaius was, joined by Harry. All of the prefects had finished their patrols; Ron was already in bed.

"Alright. In the last closet, the one I didn't want to tell you about..? It was Ginny and Luna." Gaius said.

"WHAT!?!" Harry and Hermione shouted in unison. Hermione looked over at Ginny, who suddely looked very embarrased and looked away.

"Dear God..." Harry muttered.

"Well, I removed her inhibitions with that little enhancement to the samples. She wouldn't have done it if she didn't want to. Therefore.. this unfortuately reflects something on her and Luna's part... a desire to experiment."

"Great. She still want to experiment?" Hermione asked.

"No. She has is _completely _out of her system, or so she says. And what's left, Draco'll probably remove tommorrow in Hogsmeade..." Gaius then left, leaving two astonished (and disgusted) friends behind him.

"See you later," Gaius said the next morning, entering Hogsmeade with Blaise.

Ron and Luna left next, Ron saying "Hope not to see you any time soon... OW!" The last bit came after a playful Luna slapped the back of his head; she took off into the town, Ron hot on her tail.

"Have fun!" Ginny said by way of parting as she and Draco separated from Harry and Hermione.

Sorry, I probably mangled that Ginny/Luna bit. One of my Betas told me I should counterbalance the R/D humor with a femmeslash humor part. So this will be my only attempt at any slash, for thre time being. Truth be told... I prefer the regular pairings. R&R, s'il vous plait.


	15. Xallara

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: XALLARA

AN: Sorry for the lack of updates, but a combination of school, Christmas, and moving has impeded my progress, along with several writer's blocks. This is the last chapter of Skull of Grindelwald, and is a leadoff into the next story in this series.

_Xallara: The Spirit of Time. This creature is the basis of all things pertaining to time, yet it lack sentience. The Xallara has lain dormant for several millenia, waiting to be re-discovered by a powerful witch or wizard; according to the known parts of Aristotles' Seventh Prophecy, it will become self aware in the battle against the First Dark One, sleep during the war with the Second Dark One, then merge with The Guardian to slay the Third Dark One, thus ending the Age of Darkness.- _taken from _The Book of Theosade-Kæl_, a Seventh-Century mage.

Grindelwald, the terror of the wizarding world in the 1930's and 40's, the "First Dark One" Aristotles had spoken of, had tried to possess the Xallara, and nearly succeeded. However, he lacked the strength to absorb this entity, and the allempt left him too weak to fight off the combined might of Professor Albus Dumbledore and Head Boy Tom Riddle.

The Xallara recieved sentience from Dumbledore, who gave it to him this gift so that the Xallara could to protect the Skull of Grindelwald from all other dark wizards.

Harry was about to go to sleep. Really, he was. Just a few more minutes. It wasn't how comfortable his bed was, or how tired he was; for he was neither in bed, nor tired. What was putting him to sleep? The same thing that had year after year: Professor Binns' History of Magic class.

Ron had long since nodded off, earning him a glare from Hermione. She had laughed, however, when he moaned "Luna" quietly. Blaise was snoring softly, which amused Draco and Gaius; Draco and Blaise had long since become pariahs in the Slytherin sections of classrooms and in their own dungeon; fear of Lucius Malfoy's wrath was all that proctected Draco.

Blaise, however, had no influential parents to protect her; while Pureblooded, the Zabinis weren't all that wealthy or powerful in the way that the Malfoys were. Once she had begun associating with the Gryffindors in a friendly way (Slytherin house wondered just why she and Draco had done this at almost the same time), her housemates had begun a campaign of insults and pranks.

Harry, Ron, Draco, and Gaius hadn't taken this lightly, though; most of Slytherin house was soon in the Hospital Wing, with complaints varying from bodily rashes to cases of firework-pox, courtesy of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Blaise was soon left alone.

There was a slightly loud thud, and when Draco looked over, Harry's head was resting against the desk.

Peter Pettigrew wasn't the fat, balding, decaying Death Eater Wormtail had been. He had, through what was far too much excercise and training in his opinion, gone back to being the thin Auror he was before that awfuly botched mission in September of '81.

As to his balding, Snape had made him a potion which made him nearly the exact opposite. For a week, his hair would grow an inch ever day; he had to shave every hour or so.

He remembered this, chuckling. His humor didn't last long, though; he thought of the Marauders' truce with Snape, and how the leader wasn't present for it. Peter missed James, God did he miss him. If not for James, Peter probably would have become a Death Eater.

If there was a way to bring back James, Peter resolved he would do it. Regardless of what it would cost him.

Hogsmeade was attacked on the next Hogsmeade visit. I'thok had hoped to slaughter all of the Hogwarts students, but his main attack force was destroyed by the Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix before it could reach the village. But with so many adults gone... who remained to destroy the remaining Orcs and Death Eaters?

Most of the Prefects and both Heads were herding the students back to the school; Harry, Draco, Ron, Gaius, Ginny, and Blaise were busy dealing with the Death Eaters. Between the six of them, not a spell got through, but plenty went sailing out to the enemy.

Luna was off to the side, acting as Madam Pomfrey's nurse, treating the minor injuries and helping people into the Three Broomsticks, tavern-turned-hospital. The wounds were wide and varied; several people suffering from the Cruciatus Curse, others from the wide array or Orcish Hellfire spells, and some with axe wounds, also courtesy of the Orcs.

I'thok was in the read or the lines, escorted by the newest members of the Host of the Dread Champions: Lucius Malfoy and Lord Voldemort. However, Voldemort was no longer himself. He had been raised from the dead by I'thok, but was also now in thrall to the sadistic Orc; numerous binding spells and a nearly complete revision of his mind had taken care of that.

Lucius, on the other hand, had joined the Dread Champions at Voldemort's order; he had not obeyed out of loyalty, but out of the pretense of loyalty. Lucius recognized that Voldemort was gone forever, and looked for a way to escape; until that time came, he would play the part of the smirking lackey he had always been.

Harry looked over to where Hermione was, trying to help an injured third year to the Three Broomsticks. A Death Eater nearly caught her with a Crucio; Harry sent a Rebound spell which turned the Unforgiveable back on its' caster.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter Apparated into the battle, hexes leaving their wand scant seconds after their arrival. The three men fought their way to I'thok's position, unable to apparate there. They soo saw why.

The portal had been made mobile; the magic was so raw, so powerful around it that complex magics were impossible. I'thok was directing his troops about, sending weakened Warlocks to Gre'nor for rest, and bringing new ones to Earth for battle.

Down the street, the Allied Orcs under Elarik fought their way to the portal; knocking I'thok aside, they vanished back to their homeworld, slaughtering the unaware warlocks there, while their master was helpless to aid them.

I'thok channeled his rage into a spell that he had learned from an old demonic text from Lucius Malfoy's library. "Tora Mekor!" He cried, a flaming meteorite coming down between him and the 9 humans opposing him.

The meteorite then _moved_. It got up, and stood. The creature look similar to a man, albeit twice as tall, three times as large, and covered in fire. Where the face should have been, there was naught but a smooth, rounded rock suirface with two burning eyes.

The spells fired its' way dissipated harmlessly; Infernals were immune to magic. Gaius remembered as much while dodging a blazing fist from thr creature; he spied a chair ("Accio!") and transfigured it into a 155mm Howitzer. Levitating it to the level of the Infernal's head, he called to the creature.

"Valé." Gaius said, as the howitzer shell blew the Infernal's head off. the flaming titan crashed to the earth, the flames dying out, and the stone that made up the solid part of its body turning to dust.

I'thok was furious; a testament to this was the way the portal seemed to bubble and ripple as if it were liquid. The Orc, along with Lucius and Voldemort, moved towards their enemies, wands at the ready.

Gaius saw the moment he had been waiting for. He silently moved away from the group, and moved behind the three Dark Wizards. He ignored them, focusing instead on the portal... and the skull in his hand.

He held the skull up to the portal, and said the words "Aeterna Finite Incantatem!". The portal exploded, as did the Skull of Grindelwald. Gaius nearly went unconcious, and time froze. Xallara was made manifest in the form of a ghost, looking oddly like Caesar.

"Greetings, Gaius. I must commend you on an excellent job in closing the portal... however, your work is not yet complete. I know you to be familiar with Aristotles' Seventh Prophecy, so I won't bother explaining that you are the Guardian.

"Remember, though you have ended the Age of Darkness, you must protect the Heir of Gryffindor; the Heir of Ravenclaw has done his duty, and the Heir of Hufflepuff was of little consequence.

"The remainder of this year, and the following years will be filled with confusion, strife, and turmoil of all sorts, and you alone are sufficiently equipped to both protect the Heir of Gryffindor _and_ have the ability to step aside when his time comes.

"This is a responsibility of the greatest magnitude, and a burden which none should have to bear, yet it is necessary for the continuation of Time and Space. No one could rightly blame you for not accepting, given your age, and the potential for disaster involved. Nevertheless, I must ask you: do you accept this transfer of power? Do you accept the responsibility of fully becoming the Guardian?"

It took Gaius all of a second to answer Xallara. "Yes. Yes, I accept. How can I not? "It is the completion of a cycle, and the start of another." At least, Aristotles said as much. It must be done, therefore I say again... yes."

Time unfroze, and Gaius sent three balls of temporal energy towards the Dark Wizards; all immidiately started de-aging, eventually shrinking down to zygote size, then disappearing alltogether.

Peter seized on the temporal energy, and cast a spell he had not known he would have the fortune to be able to use. It had an unfortunate side effect, however, when it was cast...

There was a flash of light, and when Harry looked up, there were three people on the ground; his mother, his father, and a redheaded girl he didn't recognize. "Mum? Dad?" The Potters were unconcious. He looked at the girl. "Who are you?" Harry asked her.

Her answer surprised all present. "I'm Lily Evans. Where am I?"


End file.
